Congratulations are in order to the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire saga, George R.R. Martin, who has been named Author of the Year by USA Today!

It was announced today that George R.R. Martin, who published the fifth book in the saga which HBO based Game of Thrones on, is USA Today’s Author of the Year. The publication writes on their website:

In 2011, everybody wanted to journey to the fantastical land of Westeros — a place teeming with dragons, monster-sized wolves, incestuous aristocrats, teen virgins and impossibly tall walls of ice.

Martin’s mammoth, page-turning “A Song of Ice & Fire” fantasy series proves that the human attention span hasn’t shriveled to the size of a starlet’s thong or an Ashton Kutcher tweet. The five-book saga, which began in 1996 with A Game of Thrones (HBO dropped the “A”), spans 4,197 pages. More than 12 million copies are in print.

It’s certainly a much deserved honour for the author, who didn’t only stake his claim for the title with A Dance With Dragons, but also with the Game of Thrones series, which has naturally spiked an interest in his books.

Read the full piece on Martin here at USA Today.